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Unemployment Trends by Sector (2025-2026)
A comparison of unemployment numbers in key industries between April 2025 and April 2026.
Primary Sources
Tracking the labor market and jobs - Brookings
Research May 7, 2026 8 min read Monitoring the labor market is critical for understanding the state of the economy. Building on The Hamilton Project’s prior work documenting and explaining various aspects of the labor market, the data interactive “Tracking the labor market and jobs” allows users to explore these trends. Users can track labor force participation, employment, and unemployment among other indicators by demographic groups: sex, age, race/ethnicity, nativity, education, age of youngest child, and disability status, with and without seasonal adjustment for select series about workers. Users can also track measures of job demand, separations, and labor market tightness by industry, state, and firm size. This tool will update twice monthly with the releases of the Current Population Survey (CPS) microdata to IPUMS (these data are harmonized over time and are released mid-month) and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (first week of the month). Step 1: Select labor market indicator Upon the initial loading of the page, users will see one open panel titled “Worker and labor market indicators” (CPS) and one closed panel titled “Firm and job indicators” (JOLTS). Users can toggle between each panel to view separately or simultaneously. Step 2: Select labor market indicator At the top of each panel, users first select one labor market indicator: Worker and labor market indicators: Labor force participation Employment metrics: employment-population ratio; part-time for economic reasons; part-time Unemployment metrics: unemployment rate; U-5 rate; long-term unemployment rate Firm and job indicators: Job demand: hires rate and job openings rate Separations: layoffs and discharges rate; quits rate; total separations rate Market tightness: job openings to unemployment ratio; hires to job openings ratio We use BLS definitions for the labor market indicators; more information on definitions can be found here for CPS indicators and here for JOLTS indicators. Labor force participation Labor force participation rate: The number of people in the labor force—employed or actively seeking work, i.e. unemployed—as a share of the population. Employment Employment-population ratio: The number of people who are employed as a share of the population. Part-time: The number of people who usually work between 1 and 34 hours per week as a share of the employed population. Part-time for economic reasons: The n...
A-31. Unemployed persons by industry, class of worker, and sex
HOUSEHOLD DATA NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED A-31. Unemployed people by industry, class of worker, and sex [Numbers in thousands] Industry and class of worker Total unemployed Unemployment rates Apr.2025 Apr.2026 Total Men Women Apr.2025 Apr.2026 Apr.2025 Apr.2026 Apr.2025 Apr.2026 Total, 16 years and over(1) 6,582 6,768 3.9 4.0 4.2 4.2 3.5 3.8 Nonagricultural private wage and salary workers(2) 5,108 5,179 3.8 3.8 4.0 4.0 3.5 3.6 Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 23 28 4.0 4.3 4.5 3.8 - 6.6 Construction 594 382 5.6 3.8 5.8 3.8 4.8 3.6 Manufacturing 552 501 3.6 3.3 3.6 3.3 3.5 3.4 Durable goods 320 282 3.2 2.8 3.2 2.9 3.3 2.5 Nonmetallic mineral products 16 27 3.8 6.2 2.9 5.4 7.7 9.2 Primary and fabricated metal products 46 37 3.0 2.7 3.1 3.1 2.7 0.0 Machinery manufacturing 27 46 2.0 3.5 2.1 3.0 1.7 4.9 Computer and electronic products 27 37 2.5 2.8 1.4 2.2 5.0 4.3 Electrical equipment and appliances 13 13 3.0 2.4 4.3 3.3 0.0 0.7 Transportation equipment 106 61 3.8 2.4 3.9 2.9 3.6 0.7 Wood products 4 4 1.2 1.2 1.4 1.4 - - Furniture and related products 12 7 3.2 1.9 3.0 3.1 4.0 0.0 Miscellaneous manufacturing 68 50 4.0 2.8 4.4 2.5 3.2 3.0 Nondurable goods 232 219 4.3 4.4 4.6 4.2 3.7 4.7 Food manufacturing 87 68 5.0 4.2 4.7 4.0 5.4 4.6 Beverage and tobacco products 16 17 5.1 4.7 4.9 4.0 5.3 6.8 Textile, apparel, and leather 19 37 4.4 10.9 8.1 10.0 0.0 11.6 Paper and printing 34 8 4.5 1.4 5.7 1.3 0.3 1.5 Petroleum and coal products 5 10 2.3 5.4 2.9 0.0 - - Chemicals 50 60 3.2 4.0 3.2 5.2 3.1 2.2 Plastics and rubber products 21 19 5.4 5.0 4.9 6.3 6.4 2.6 Wholesale and retail trade 862 981 4.3 5.0 4.1 4.7 4.7 5.4 Wholesale trade 67 76 2.2 2.7 1.6 3.6 3.2 1.0 Retail trade 795 906 4.7 5.4 4.6 5.0 4.9 5.9 Transportation and utilities 280 322 3.3 3.7 3.4 4.1 3.2 2.5 Transportation and warehousing 252 291 3.6 3.9 3.7 4.3 3.2 2.6 Utilities 27 32 2.1 2.4 1.7 2.6 3.3 1.8 Information(3) 119 98 4.6 3.8 3.3 4.1 6.7 3.4 Publishing, except Internet 18 0 4.0 0.0 7.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Motion picture and sound recording industries 58 17 12.6 3.8 6.7 5.0 20.9 1.2 Broadcasting and content providers 10 46 2.2 9.3 0.0 9.3 5.5 9.3 Telecommunications 26 31 3.1 3.5 2.6 3.1 4.8 4.6 Financial activities 308 288 2.9 2.7 3.3 3.2 2.6 2.2 Finance and insurance 225 229 2.9 2.9 3.6 3.7 2.3 2.1 Finance 152 181 3.1 3.5 3.7 4.2 2.4 2.8 Insurance 73 48 2.6 1.7 3.4 2.6 2.1 1.2 Real estate and rental and leasing 83 59 3.0 2.1 2.5 1.8 3.7 2.4 Real estate 72...
Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States
Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization for States Six alternative measures of labor underutilization have long been available on a monthly basis from the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the United States as a whole. They are published in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Employment Situation news release. (See table 15.) The official concept of unemployment (as measured in ...
October Jobs Report: Slowing Inflation and Historically Low ...
The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.6% as was the number of people in the labor force who wanted a job, 5.7 million. Long-term unemployment (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 1.6 million, up from 1.3 million a year ago. Long-term unemployment accounted for 22.9 percent of all unemployed workers.
